Landing an Amazon SDE I (Software Development Engineer I) role as a new graduate or early-career engineer requires meticulous preparation. This guide dissects every stage of Amazon’s interview process, providing actionable strategies, many sample questions, and insights into Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Whether you’re tackling the online assessment or preparing for the Bar Raiser round, this resource equips you to succeed.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Amazon’s SDE I Role
2. Interview Process Overview
3. Stage 1: Online Assessment (OA)
4. Stage 2: Technical Phone Screen
5. Stage 3: Onsite Interviews
   • Coding Rounds
   • System Design Round
   • Behavioral & Leadership Principles
6. Preparation Strategies
7. Special Section for New Graduates
8. Additional Resources

Introduction to Amazon’s SDE I Role

What Does an SDE I Do?

Amazon’s SDE I is an entry-level role for engineers with 0-2 years of experience. Key responsibilities include:

• Coding: Developing features under mentorship (e.g., backend APIs, frontend components).
• Debugging: Resolving bugs in existing services.
• Collaboration: Working with senior engineers, product managers, and QA teams.
• Learning: Mastering AWS tools (e.g., EC2, S3) and internal systems.

Autonomy:

• Operates with guidance from SDE II/III engineers.
• Focuses on well-defined tasks (e.g., “Add a new filter to the product search API”).

How SDE I Compares to Other Levels

Interview Process Overview

Amazon’s SDE I process typically follows these stages:

1. Online Assessment (OA):

   • 2 coding problems (70-90 minutes) on HackerRank or Amazon’s internal platform.
   • Automatic resume screening for candidates passing OA.

2. Technical Phone Screen:

   • 45-60 minute coding interview with an Amazon engineer.
   • Focus on problem-solving, code optimization, and edge cases.

3. Onsite Interviews (4-5 Rounds):

   • 2 Coding Rounds: Medium-hard LeetCode-style questions.
   • 1 System Design Round: Basic architecture (e.g., parking lot system).
   • 1 Behavioral Round: Leadership Principles (STAR format).
   • Bar Raiser Round: Additional technical/behavioral evaluation by a senior engineer.

PRO TIP: Practice with real Amazon SDE I interview questions reported by candidates on Onsites.fyi. Filter by year and question frequency to prioritize high-impact topics.

Stage 1: Online Assessment (OA)

What to Expect

• Platform: HackerRank or Amazon Chime (with proctoring).
• Time: 70-90 minutes for 2 coding questions.
• Scoring: Test cases (visible/hidden) assess correctness and efficiency.

Question Types

1. Data Structures: Arrays, strings, hash maps, linked lists.
2. Algorithms: Two pointers, sliding window, BFS/DFS.
3. Problem Patterns: Amazon frequently reuses OA questions—practice past problems.

Example OA Questions (2025)

1. Medium Difficulty:

   • “Given an array of meeting time intervals, determine if a person can attend all meetings.”
   • “Design a rate limiter that allows 100 requests per minute per user.”

2. Hard Difficulty:

   • “Find the minimum number of steps to convert string A to string B using insert/delete/replace operations (Edit Distance).”
   • “Serialize and deserialize a binary tree.”

How to Prepare for OA

• LeetCode: Filter questions by Amazon OA tags (e.g., #amazon).
• Time Management: Allocate 35-40 minutes per question; write brute force first, then optimize.
• Test Cases: Validate edge cases (empty input, large numbers, duplicates).

Stage 2: Technical Phone Screen

Interview Structure

1. Introduction (5 mins): Brief chat about your background.
2. Coding Problem (35 mins): Solve a medium-level question (e.g., trees, graphs).
3. Follow-Up (10 mins): Optimize time/space complexity or handle edge cases.

Common Topics

• Trees: BST validation, LCA, level-order traversal.
• Graphs: Shortest path (Dijkstra), topological sorting.
• Dynamic Programming: Knapsack, coin change.

Sample Questions

1. “Given a matrix of 0s and 1s, find the shortest path from top-left to bottom-right avoiding 1s.”
   • Expected: BFS with visited tracking.
2. “Merge k sorted linked lists into one sorted list.”
   • Expected: Min-heap approach (O(n log k) time).

Evaluation Criteria

• Code Quality: Readability, proper naming, modular functions.
• Communication: Explain your approach before coding.
• Optimization: Reduce time/space complexity (e.g., O(n²) → O(n)).

Stage 3: Onsite Interviews

Coding Rounds

Two 60-minute rounds focusing on data structures and algorithms.

Question Types:

• Array/String Manipulation:
  • “Find all anagrams in a string.”
  • “Rotate a matrix by 90 degrees.”
• Tree/Graph Problems:
  • “Clone a graph with random pointers.”
  • “Count the number of nodes in a complete binary tree.”
• Dynamic Programming:
  • “Maximum product subarray.”
  • “Decode ways for a numeric string.”

Pro Tip: Amazon often asks “practical” coding questions (e.g., designing data structures for real-world systems like shopping carts).

System Design Round

Scope: Basic systems (no distributed systems expected for SDE I).

Example Problem: “Design a parking lot system.”

Step-by-Step Approach:

1. Clarify Requirements:

   • Types of vehicles (car, motorcycle)?
   • Multiple floors?
   • Payment integration?

2. Define Classes:

   • ParkingLot, ParkingFloor, ParkingSpot, Vehicle.

3. APIs:

   • parkVehicle(Vehicle v) → Ticket
   • unparkVehicle(Ticket t) → float (cost calculation).

4. Database Schema:

   • Tables: ParkingSpots (spot_id, floor, type, is_occupied), Tickets.

5. Edge Cases:

   • Handling full parking lots.
   • Concurrent access (brief mention of locks).

Behavioral & Leadership Principles Round

Amazon evaluates candidates against 16 Leadership Principles (LPs). SDE I interviews focus on 5-6 key LPs:

1. Customer Obsession

   • “Tell me about a time you went out of your way to improve a customer’s experience.”

2. Ownership

   • “Describe a project you owned beyond your initial assignment.”

3. Invent and Simplify

   • “How have you simplified a complex process in your work?”

4. Learn and Be Curious

   • “What new technology have you learned recently, and how did you apply it?”

5. Bias for Action

   • “Describe a time you made a quick decision with incomplete data.”

STAR Framework:

• Situation: Set context (e.g., class project, internship).
• Task: Your responsibility.
• Action: Steps you took (emphasize collaboration).
• Result: Quantifiable outcome (e.g., “Reduced API latency by 40%”).

Common Mistakes:

• Rambling without structure.
• Focusing on “we” instead of “I” (Amazon wants individual impact).

Preparation Strategies

Technical Prep

1. Data Structures & Algorithms:

   • Books: Cracking the Coding Interview (Chapters 1-5, 8).
   • LeetCode: Solve all Amazon-tagged questions (200+).
   • Patterns: Two pointers, sliding window, BFS/DFS, topological sort.

2. System Design Basics:

   • Courses: Grokking the System Design Interview (first 5 modules).
   • Practice: Use Excalidraw for diagramming.

3. Coding Practice:

   • Mock Platforms: Interviewing.io, Pramp (simulate Amazon’s environment).
   • Time Constraints: Solve medium problems in 25 minutes.

Behavioral Prep

1. LP Story Bank:

   • Write 2-3 stories per Leadership Principle.
   • Example: For Ownership, describe a bug you fixed voluntarily.

2. Mock Behavioral Interviews:

   • Practice with peers using Day One.

Health & Mindset

• Sleep: Prioritize 7-8 hours before interviews.
• Mindfulness: Use apps like Headspace to manage anxiety.

Special Section for New Graduates

Leveraging Academic Projects

• Example Story: “In my distributed systems class, I built a fault-tolerant key-value store using Raft consensus (Learn and Be Curious).”

Handling Lack of Experience

• Internships: Frame small contributions as ownership (e.g., “I led the migration of X feature”).
• Class Projects: Use Agile terminology (e.g., “sprints,” “user stories”).

Resume Tips for Amazon

• Keywords: Include AWS, microservices, Agile.
• Metrics: “Optimized API response time by 30% using caching.”

Additional Resources

1. Books:

   • Cracking the Coding Interview (Gayle Laakmann McDowell)
   • Amazon Leadership Principles Explained (Day One Careers)

2. Websites:

   • LeetCode Amazon Top Questions
   • Amazon Leadership Principles Guide

For more detailed insights and recent interview experiences, review Onsites.fyi. It offers hundreds of detailed Amazon interview experiences, helping you understand exactly what to expect and how to prepare effectively for the phone screen and onsite rounds at Amazon.

Want to dive deeper? Check out the complete guide to Amazon's Software Engineer Interview Process for a comprehensive overview on all aspects of interviewing at Amazon.

Additional Resources

• Company Specific Interview Guides
  • The Comprehensive Guide to Big Tech Interviews: Proven Strategies for Every Stage of the Process
  • Meta Software Engineer Interview Questions: An In-Depth Guide to Success
  • Microsoft Software Engineering Interview Questions and Process: A Complete Guide
  • Meta Behavioral Interview Guide: A Comprehensive Guide
  • Mastering the Google Software Engineer Interview: A Detailed Step-by-Step Guide
  • Apple Phone Screen CoderPad Interview for Software Engineers in 2025
  • Cracking the Amazon Software Development Engineer (SDE) Interview Process: A Comprehensive 2025 Guide
  • Meta Software Engineer Phone Screen and Onsite Technical Interview Questions 2025

Note: This guide is based on publicly available information and insights from candidates who have undergone the Amazon interview process.